Read about "the social web burn out blog" at JavaMuseum.org. Created an account, logged in, checked out the place. Looks promising for shared, tagged and networked experience. Have not made a network though, not yet.

So go most of the posts at Yvonne Martinsson's blog art piece "the social web burn out blog." The piece was part of the JavaMuseum.org's art+blog=blogart? (a+b=ba?) blog-based exhibition last summer, which brought together a number of net.art works with the medium of blogs as their focus and method.

The social web burn out blog chronicles the exploration of social media services from the perspective of an ingenuous Web 2.0-phile. Martinsson's first few entries demonstrate a wide-eyed awe (and anxiety) about such 2.0 features as tagging, blogging, and "networking":

"Today we would probably say, 'I tag therefore I am,' as a great deal of our social software has become tagged experience. But, I don’t have tags installed here in my [we]blog (I could, but it would cost me a few bucks, or could you help me out here?).

Instead, I’ll have to do with categories. I don’t know if that counts as tagged experience, the drawback being that there are no tag clouds to display… Does the absence of a tag cloud diminish the socially networked experience? Yeah, a question that needs pondering, maybe we’ll see an academic paper in the not too distant future unless there already exists one on this very difficult topic. "

She goes on throughout the summer documenting her experiences signing up for new services and testing them out. A majority of these entries revolve around the format of this entry's opening paragraph. At the end of July 2007, the blogging abruptly ends with an entry with the words "SYSTEM OFFLINE." Surrounding these entries are awkward examples of the familiar Web 2.0 doo-dads, Flickr badges, Google ads, RSS feed links, PayPal "donate" links, "Share This!" links, etc.

Ultimately Martinsson succeeds in creating a believable and at times charming parody of the naive, navel-gazing, technophilic Web 2.0 blog - check this blog's early entries if you need examples of the object of her parody. She tracks the progress and ultimate frustration of a user attempting to familiarize herself with the speed and much-touted utility of social media technologies. And what better medium than a blog to fully enter this character? Blogs are the stereotypical medium for the techno-ingenue and Martinsson identifies that voice in her entries.

Yet, despite her parodic success, I am left feeling unsatisfied by Martinsson's critique. Naive views on the cultural roles of social media abound and are an all too easy target. Her studied simplicity ends up communicating more of an aloofness than a genuine interest in her subject. Some of the more successful blog art pieces out there revel in their complicity and medium, rather than side-stepping it with parody.